High gpa but low sat and act scores. I am panicking that I won’t get into a good UC like la, Santa Barbara or Davis. I need advice
Total gpa
(W) 4.15
(UW) 3.9
10-12 gpa
(W) 4.27
(UW) 3.81
Sat
1120
Act
21
Intended major? HS course rigor: UC approved Honors/AP/IB or DE courses? AP test scores? Breakdown of your SAT/ACT?
UC’s are very GPA focused but with that said, your test scores are very low for the MId-tier UC and Upper Tier UC’s. Do you plan to retake before December?
Check out the UC Freshman profiles to see where you stand with your test scores:
http://admission.universityofcalifornia.edu/freshman/profiles/
Since there is a huge mismatch with your SAT/ACT scores and GPA, to admissions it looks like your HS has major grade inflation.
http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/what-my-chances/1903428-faq-uc-historical-frosh-admit-rates-by-hs-gpa.html shows admit rates by HS GPA (weighted, capped at 8 semesters of honors +1 points).
Your SAT score appears to be around the 25th percentile of UCD, and below the 25th percentile at UCSB and UCLA. This is likely disadvantageous (so your chances are likely worse that past admit rates by GPA would indicate), although UCs tend to weight HS GPA more heavily than SAT scores (though UCLA is a very difficult school to get admitted even just looking at HS GPA).
Your ACT score is much lower, so if you do retry, it would make more sense to concentrate on raising the SAT.
You may want to add UCSC, UCR, and UCM to your UC application.
I plan to have ucsc as my backup
The UC’s are extremely competitive. Your back up as UCSC won’t pan out.
Try the non-impacted CSU’s
UCR and UCM seem more reasonable unless you can bump up your test scores.
UCSC should not be treated as a back-up in your case. Add UCR, UCM, CSUs, or CCs for safeties. Increase your SAT to around 1350+ or your ACT to around 30+ to better your chances at the UCs you have mentioned.
Good luck.
What’s your intended major?